Just a quick up date.  The cemetery fence is done view picts here:

http://www.halloweengallery.com/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=10199&pos=0

The gates will stay closed until halloween, if you can't read the sign it says "Keep out", I might make one that says "Welcome", but with the gates open it should be clear the haunt is open.

     Well we now have a way of broadcasting the backstory for the haunt.  Visitors can now pull up in front of the house (really anywhere along the block) and listing to the story of the "Haunt on widow's bluff".  Without going into a lot of detail I am using the Belkin tuncast, a CD I made with the story with background music mixed, put the CD in the boombox, plug in the tuncast and tune your car to 88.7.  I know this will really add to the excitement and build up before Halloween, it will probably add to the traffic in front of the house as people stop to listen, I am hoping for the best but, it could turn in to a traffic nightmare.  I am working on a little skeleton guy to hold a sign which says "Tune to 88.7". 

     I have finished five new tombstones for this years haunt and you can view the pics here:

http://www.halloweengallery.com/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=10199&pos=0

I hope to get five or six more made by the end of the summer, but they take so long to make and are a pain to sand and paint....

     The scarecrow and the new gate for the fence are done and I will upload pics soon, I really want to get a night picture.  The scarecrow does not look to scary in the day, but at night he looks creepy.

     Well that's about it for now, if I can get some Halloween working time this week I might be able to work on redoing the spider.

     Last week I got six tombstones cut out and glued together.  I hope to get them ready to paint and this week before we go on vacation.  I did get the backporch/work area cleaned and straighted, maybe now I can find what I am looking for.  I still can't post any pictures here but at this time there really is not much to show.  The pumpkin seeds are growing well, but I don't hold out much hope for the other seeds in the garden.  Too much heat and lack of consistent rain, I am not the best about watering. 

     Well I'm off to do something productive, not sure what that might be though.

     It's the start to the official first full week out of school!  It was a pretty stress free school year; nice kids, reasonable parents and administration seemed to forget the eighth grade wing existed so we didn’t see much of them. 

     I have change the name of the haunt again to the “Haunting on widow’s bluff”, it fits more with the story we have floated around about the house being haunted by the widow who used to live here and her husband who built the house.  I started on some Celtic cross tombstones over the weekend and plan to finish cutting and gluing them this week.  I would like to get all the new tombstones done by the end of June and then start to work on the Pumpkin rot and the tree souls. 

     The seeds I planted in the garden are coming up, but the little guys are having a tough time.  It has been crazy hot and no rain.  It finally rained yesterday and cooled off a bit so hopefully they will really take off this week.

     I’m off to make the tombstones, will post pics later!

       It has been a long and uneventful winter, but the planning for this year's haunt is complete!  The first stage of the haunt was started this weekend with the planting of the garden.  The front garden has been used more and more over the years as the haunt expands.  This year the garden is a part of the haunt.  The plan is for the space to mimic a rundown Victorian garden.  I tried to select plants (mostly seeds) which have a spooky look or color. 

In my cauldron I planted some green beans that grow long and twisted (they look kind of like green monster fingers), in front of this I placed nearly black hollyhocks and baby’s breath.  I also planted areas of baby boo white pumpkins mixed with snake gourds; I hope these will vine throughout the garden.  Along the fence line I put white moonflowers and dark purple morning glory.  The rest of the garden has pockets of other whites and dark blues, purples and blacks.  I also planted some Chinese lanterns, they look like little paper mache’ pumpkins when they go to seed.  I don’t really expect the blacks to be a true black but up against the white flowers I hope they look dark.  If anyone has some other suggestions for other plantings that look creepy I still have some space left.  Most of the garden is full sun and zone five.

The plan for this year is to have the TOT's to first pass the garden, which will be filled with statues, creepy plants and vines and the spider.  I hope to give the spider some babies this year.  Next the kids will pass the porch where the witch (me) will be with my potions and fortune telling props.  Next the kids will pass by Pumpkin Rot, then a revamped hell mouth with tree/souls flanking each side.  Then the TOT's will pass by the vampire and then through the graveyard and out the gate.

Some new additions this year will be a gate for the fence, Pumpkin Rot, tree/souls and more tombstones.  Those props should keep me busy for most of the summer.  I have more plans but right now my focus is getting the gardens cleaned and planted for the season.  As soon as school is out the house needs a good cleaning and then it is off to the beach for a week.   After that then it is Halloween prop construction till it gets too hot!  Till then check out my pics link to see the garden in progress.  I can't seem to get my pics to post within the text of this blog :(